The ONI Way
by phoenixforce50
Summary: The Assassin Templar war has continued into the 26th century, and humanity is at war with a vastly superior group of alien species known as the Covenant. Behind the looming power of ONI, there is a Templar master, behind the rebels and Insurrection, there are the Assassins, hiding among the UNSC's old enemies. As events unfold, questions will be raised and loyalties will be tested.
1. Chapter 1

The ONI Way

**Chapter 1**

Alistair sat gloomily in the back of the truck headed into enemy territory, flicking his surgically implanted hidden blade in and out of his wrist, the smooth metal barely making a sound as it slid across his bare skin. The truck rumbled its way down a frozen glacial path that lead to a coastal base situated at the southernmost landmass on a desolate Arcadia. The planet, due to its low population and previous Covenant attacks, made a fine site for an inconspicuous base of operations; no-one asked questions and few knew of its existence. Alistair pulled his hood deeper over his head and pulled up his face mask, which concealed most of his features, including the prominent scar on his left cheek. After a few more bumps, the truck came to a checkpoint. Alistair instinctively checked his silenced M6C magnum pistol at his side; it was still there. Alistair heard boots crunching against light snow outside and the muffled conversation of the guards with the driver. Alistair pulled the large crate lid over him and hid beneath the shipment of food and supplies, which he'd spiked with a powerful yet untraceable poison. The guards came around the back of the truck, climbed in and began to open some of the boxes closest to them, not particularly expecting any intruders in the first place, and as such, not looking as carefully as their detailed security manuals instructed. After about forty seconds, they retreated back outside and the truck and its deadly cargo continued to its final destination.

"Sir, here's the inventory from the latest shipment, they'll be he in thirty seconds." said the young marine as she walked up to her superior officer with a datapad containing the aforementioned inventory report. The officer took the pad and looked over the inventory.

"It looks like we didn't get as many parkas as we wanted, but still enough. Alright, unload it into the storage bays."

Alistair watched as the crates were loaded into the storage area form a vantage point out of sight. He breathed a sigh of relief and it condensed in front of his face. He shuffled back onto the roof and headed to the main complex.

"Hey, have you seen Coulson?"

"No, why?"

"It's supposed to be his shift now, and he's never late for his shift. I wonder where he is."

"Maybe he ran off because you smell."

"Wow, real mature Jenkins. Maybe he doesn't like that noise you make."

"Oh yeah? What noise?"

"That constant sound of you being an idiot. Come on, let's go find him."

The two guards split up to search for the missing guard. As one went to the door of the bathroom, Alistair twitched a muscle in his arm and a mechanical blade responded to the motion and flicked out of his arm. Out of the view of the other guard, Alistair slid out from behind the door, slashed the guard across the throat, cutting it open and sending a spray of blood into Alistair's waiting hand which clamped down hard, causing minimal spray. The man was silently dead in seconds. Alistair grabbed his body and dumped it into the toilet stall. Cleaning his hands, he picked up his access card and went to the door, swiping it, he entered the laboratory. There was no-one there, all the personnel having turned in for the long, cold night. Alistair closed the door behind him and quickly went around the lab, searching for an access port. He dashed into the adjoining room and continued searching, finally finding a database access terminal. He withdrew a special data chip and slotted it into the port. Onscreen, digital information flashed faster than Alistair's eyes could keep up.

"Come on, come on," as Alistair urged the download to hurry up, he heard guards shouting and heading down the catwalk towards the lab. Finally, the download finished, the information removed from the database and sent to an orbiting ship, awaiting his signal for extraction.

As Alistair turned to erase the logs, the door was opened and three guards rushed in, brandishing MA5B assault rifles. Instantly realising his situation, Alistair leapt into action; literally. He vaulted over the table between him and the guards, covering the distance before the guards had even tuned around. Alistair triggered both of his blades fully, each almost a foot long, and plunged them into the first guard, puncturing both his lungs. The man dropped, gasping for air as blood slowly filled his collapsing lungs. The other two guards had finally brought their rifles around and attempted to fire at Alistair who grabbed the wrist of the closet guard and twisted him around in front of Alistair just as his fellow guard fired several rounds into him. Alistair tossed the dead guard aside and strode towards the remaining one, who swung his elbow at Alistair in an attempt to knock him unconscious. Alistair easily ducked the clumsy blow and thrust his palm up into the man's jaw, stunning him, then spun around behind and pulled hard on his head and turned. The man's neck snapped. As Alistair looked up at the doorway, another person blocked his path: a woman in military dress, also his secondary target. She was holding a gun at his head at point-blank range, there was no way he could get out of the way in time, but he'd be damned if he didn't try. Alistair tried to roll to the side and out of the way, but the woman's reflexes were somehow quicker than his and she fired, the shot hitting its mark. Alistair fell to the floor.

Alistair woke to a bucket of freezing cold water splashing across his body, the sudden change in temperature shocking him awake. As he sputtered and tried to open his eyes, he realised that there was a bag over his head and that he was tied up, unable to even trigger his blades. A voice spoke to him.

"So, the Insurrectionists are using Assassins now, are they? Or is it the other way around?"

It was the voice of a woman, maybe his secondary target, but there was no way to be sure under the circumstances. Alistair said nothing.

"Giving me the silent treatment won't help you here, Assassin. I know what you are here for. I know you sent the research already, but you didn't clear the logs; we can still track the transmission. We _will _find your friends."

Alistair remained stubbornly silent

"We also found the poison you laced our supplies with. Clever, but nowhere near good enough."

Alistair heard footsteps getting closer, and the voice suddenly felt a lot closer

"You know just as well as I do what the Covenant is doing to humanity, and I think my people have a better chance of winning than yours. And even if we win, who do you think is going to have more resources available to them, hmm? Face it, the Templars hold all the cards, and ONI is our ace. If you tell us everything, I might just let you live, and then you might just live to see the end of this war. So which is it? Will you betray your brothers to save your race, or betray humanity to save your brothers?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Governor Jiles took a sip from a glass of scotch, mixed feelings going through his mind. He had just received word that the data that was successfully stolen from the ONI research facility on Arcadia, but one of their best Assassins, his brother Alistair, didn't deactivate the auto-destruct on the extraction shuttle, meaning that he was either stranded or dead, soon to be the latter for sure. Jiles was not normally a man to show his true feelings outwardly, but the loss of his brother was something that hung about him like a cloud of despair.

A knock on the door wrenched him from his lament. He looked up and said "Enter."

The door slid open and his nephew, Jack, entered the room.

"Uncle Jacob, what's happened? No-one's telling me anything. Why hasn't uncle Alistair reported back yet? Why are you so-"

"Always the inquisitive one,"

Jack kept silent, waiting for further understanding of the words his uncle was saying.

"You're just like him, inquisitive; never letting something go until you understand it all. Ever since our father died, Alistair took care of both your father and I; always making sure whatever we were doing was safe before we tried it. Got us out of a few slippery spots I can tell you. I was always surprised that he jumped straight at the opportunity to become an Assassin, knowing full well the risks involved, but I suppose at that time, he saw more than just the safety of your father and I; he saw the safety of the human race."

"Wha- what are you saying?" said Jack, his lip trembling slightly

"Alistair, he- I, I can't. here's the mission report. I'm sorry."

Jiles slid the readout across his antique desk to Jack, who deftly swept it up and pored over it in desperation. As his eyes reached the bottom of the page, the rate at which he read slowed until he slowly put down the readout. He fell heavily into the chair at the front of the desk.

"I, I can't believe he's gone. I, I just-"

"I know Jack. It pains me deeply to say this, but Alistair Jiles, my brother, your uncle, Assassin and above all, patriot, is dead."

Jack was silent for a moment, then regained his senses

"Now what do we do? The mission report said he managed to transmit the research to the ship before the shuttle exploded and his bioreader says he froze to death. What will we do with it?"

"First, we'll hold a funeral service for him. But we must make sure his death was not in vain. Here, take this. This was originally meant for Alistair, but in his will, he left everything to you, so it seems only right that this opportunity should be presented to you first." Jiles handed Jack a stapled sheaf of papers. Jack took them with a look of suspicion in his eye.

"What is this?" asked Jack

"Those, those are what Alistair died for. Those," Jiles paused for dramatic effect, the gravity of the situation not lost on Jack "are your official papers for being a part of project: Prometheus."

Jack walked down the long hallway and towards the elevators. Today was the day that he was supposed to report to laboratory two for project: Prometheus. As the elevator travelled to the bottom floor, Jack wondered what the outcome of the project would be. The papers only revealed that he would be testing the effectiveness of modified Covenant weaponry in combat and other situations. The vague description bothered Jack greatly. As the elevator doors opened, he saw other test subjects waiting outside laboratory two. As Jack approached the door, a scientist met him and asked "Are you here for project: Prometheus?"

"Yes, I'm here in place of Alistair Jiles. I'm-"

"Jack Jiles, yes I know. I'm so sorry for your loss. Alistair was a great Assassin. Really had a lot of the traits his ancestors shared."

"What do you mean?" asked Jack, wondering how the scientist knew that

"Ah, your hidden blades are surgically implanted, yes?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then you would have been trained recently. I'm guessing in the last ten or eleven years?"

"I began training thirteen years ago, by Alistair and my father."

"Oh, OK then. You're in for a treat. Right, that makes everyone." The scientist turned his attention to the group assembled outside the laboratory. Jack made to ask more about it but the scientist continued on.

"Everyone please make your way inside in a calm and orderly fashion. You have all been assigned a section and a number. Line up in your assigned section in numerical order and wait for further instruction."

The testing group, containing both Assassins and Insurrectionists, made their way inside. Jack was assigned to section H, and numbered five. He took his place in line and stood at attention. The other test subject lined up on both side of him and began talking amongst themselves

"We're not even anything closely resembling a military operation; why do we have to slap a fancy label on this project thing?"

"I don't know. You know what we're doing here?"

"Nah, heard that we're testing modified Covenant weaponry. That's it. Wonder what it is, I hope it's energy swords that I can use."

"Oh, hell yeah that would be _so cool_."

"Shut up you guys," said the woman at the front of the line "we're about to start.

Indeed, another scientist was walking towards section H with a datapad that he lay down on the table beside the front of the line.

"Hello to you all. I am Doctor Bennett. You are all very lucky; you get to test out modified energy sword technology,"

The two men who were talking about them before both fist-bumped each other.

"We have implemented them into smaller handles to allow for humans to use them, and in other ways as well. Alright then, everyone numbered one-to-five this way, six-to-ten that way."

Jack followed the people ahead of him but the scientist stopped him

"Aren't you a little young for this testing sonny?"

"I'm nineteen; and I have hidden blades. I think that speaks for itself."

"No, I meant if you have had any animus training yet. It normally doesn't happen until twenty or so. Still, as long as you get that, you should be fine for what we have in mind."

The scientist released Jack, who could have released himself easily, but something about him made Jack want to stay and listen to what he had to say.

"What is animus training anyway? My father mentioned it but never went into details about it."

"Well, that's because it's one of our most closely guarded secrets. You'll find out soon enough. I'll make the proper arrangements then. In the meantime, continue on, we'll get it done after the tests."

Jack nodded and went along to follow the rest of the group, sorely disappointed that no more could be revealed about the animus. As he caught up with the group, he heard another scientist describing the nature of the experiments

"-and it works just the same as the old hidden blade gauntlets, but still works through implants if you have them. You can use both, in case they stop working. All right, pick up a pair of gauntlets and proceed to the testing area. You'll know when the test begins."

The two men and two women picked up their pairs of gauntlets, Jack lagged behind before doing the same. The group followed a blue line on the ground through two corridors until they reached a sudden drop. The woman at the head of the group, the one who told them to shut up, looked down and nodded slightly. She flicked her wrist and a strange hissing noise Jack didn't recognise came from her position. Jack couldn't see what was going on but before he could get a better view, she leapt off the edge silently, falling gracefully like a tiger pouncing onto its prey. The two people behind her did the same, and Jack finally saw what they were doing: the man in front of Jack flicked out his wrist as if to release his hidden blade but instead of a long blade of metal extruding from his wrist, a strangely curved blade of blue energy flicked out. The man looked back at Jack and gave a wry grin, then turned back and performed a picture-perfect aerial assassination on the dummy several metres below them, slicing cleanly through the neck as though it was paper. The man stood up and continued onwards. Jack looked down, the dummy already replaced by a new one. Jack looked down at his wrist, the gauntlet a strangely familiar weight, as if it were an extension of his own self. He flicked out his regular hidden blades and as he was told, they still worked. He sheathed them and then tried the new gauntlets. Two wicked blades of blue plasma held within a magnetic field appeared at each end of his hands, in a similar position to his regular hidden blades. He admired the way they glowed with an ominous light, like something beautiful and deadly at the same time.

"Test subject five, you have not completed the objective, please aerial assassinate the dummy below." said an automated voice from the PA system

Jack looked up and blushed in embarrassment. He shifted his weight and observed his target, gauging the distance at about ten metres; he shifted his weight so that he would land on the target's back and push it to the ground to cushion his fall. Immersing himself fully in the moment, using the mental training Alistair had perfected and taught him, he jumped and time seemed to slow for a second; the wind a low growl in his ears, and he fell onto his target, piercing the neck and rolling with the fall, holding the dummy's head in his hand. Making up for lost time, Jack sprinted forward through the white walled room to the next chamber, the automated voice saying "Test chamber one complete. Proceed to test chamber two."


	3. Chapter 3

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	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Jack slid into the animus chair, surprisingly comfortable for its rigid-looking design. The display screen next to his head slid across over his face.

"Alright, you will need to be synchronised with the animus and the avatar's movements before you can move onto the actual training. The bleeding effect will do the rest."

Jack nodded, not really understanding what he had to do but trusting Uncle Jacob's judgement.

As his vision blurred into white, he was suddenly in a large empty space, like he was standing on nothing and watching the threads of the world trail off into nothingness. A voice spoke to him from everywhere at once

"Welcome to the animus 5.6. This program is designed to instruct personnel and allow them to gain the skills and knowledge of previous Assassins by reliving their memories firsthand. Please try to move your head around."

Jack followed the instruction, the movement feeling strange in a body that was not his own.

"Good, now try walking to that marker."

As the voice said this, a glowing spiral of light appeared a few metres away. Jack, one shaky step at a time, eventually reached the marker.

"Good, now please hrrrrgggffth."

Jack creased his brow in confusion but it was short-lived

"Just a minute, the automatic synchronisation program is a little outdated. I'll take it from here." It was the doctor who was helping him into the animus.

"What do I do now then?" asked Jack

"Well, your file says that this is your first animus training session so we'll have to take it a little slower than normal, but you should finish a day or two after the others."

The training was long and arduous, but Jack enjoyed it all the same. Reliving the lives of previous Assassins who had lived to a long life, who had been the best they could be. After the 18 days of nearly nonstop training Jack was finally pronounced ready for fieldwork. He had already received his first mission: to steal data from scientists excavating ancient ruins of unknown origin. The researchers were located on the planet Heian in the Arc star cluster that was previously used as a Covenant command and supply base.

Assassins mostly lived in underground bunkers where they wouldn't be seen or detected from above, and these researchers were foolish enough, or gutsy enough to set up their base of operations on the surface, inside the alien ruins. Jack thought about it for a minute as the stealth craft slunk through the dark recesses of space and concluded that they probably needed to be close to the ruins in order to glean as much information as possible. And it would provide cover against the elements. Besides, the Covenant had already been through there, so what could possibly be left?

Jack filed that thought away for when further information could be acquired and strapped himself in for landing. The rest of the people in Gamma team were already making their preparations.

The sniper, who was quite talkative during the trip and was called Zhang Ho, was checking over his particle beam rifle. Stolen from the Covenant, it had been reverse-engineered for project: Prometheus and there was just enough genetic material left on it for a partial animus program to be pulled from its previous owner's life of sniping, before it was cut short by a marine. Zhang was a man of humble beginning; born and raised on a farm on Venezia, he started out as a farm boy moose-hunter, the kind of sniper most resented by UNSC elite snipers and decided to join the Assassins after a Templar tried to steal his family's land out from under them and killed to finally get it.

Their logistics and analysis team member Jill Monroe had an AI to assist her and was in a heated discussion with it about what could have made the ruins. She was an academic, and bonded easily with the AI named Cassandra, her blonde hair cut back to hang just past her ears mirroring that of the AI's image. A disturbing coincidence, thought Jack.

Their heavy and weapons specialist, a man with a crew cut and light beard named Hank Fuller, was going over each of his different weapons, making sure all of them were in working order. His movements smooth and flowing even in the bulky _drachen _armour he wore. The armour was, of course, a modern representation of the ancient armour. Only a few were made in renaissance Italy, due to their size and weight only men of extreme strength could use it. The modern representation had all the bulk of its ancestor but a lightweight compound material that made it much more practical in battle.

The team leader, Julia Stroud, had completely ignored Jack during the whole trip and was looking very at home in the captain's chair. Her black hair tied back in a short ponytail and her gaze set on the planet that was steadily getting bigger in front of her.

"So, what do you think we're going to see there?" said a female voice suddenly, jarring Jack from his thoughts

"Sorry, what?"

"I said," the owner of the voice now apparent that it was their logistics member "what do you think we're going to find down there?"

"I honestly have no idea. Isn't that your job?"

"Well, yes. But you seem like the kind of guy who's interested in stuff." And awkward pause passed between them

"I'm Jill, what's your name?" asked Jill, holding out her hand in a friendly way with a warm smile on her face

"I'm Jack. Jack Jiles."

"Oh, you must be the guy who's related to the governor. I didn't get much chance to talk during the rest of the trip, I was studying the data with the AI."

"Uh huh."

"It's really interesting. The ruins predate both sides, and we don't know who built them. They're not Forerunner or First Civilisation."

"I guess we'll find out when we get down there."

"Well, we're almost there kids." Said the heavy, hoisting a minigun over his massive shoulders

"Better strap in tight. I'm Hank by the way. Zhang's been yapping my ear off the whole trip. Maybe he'll shut up when we hit the ground."

Jill laughed

"Not likely Hank. I never shut up unless I'm behind a rifle and a target's in front of me." Said Zhang in a light Chinese accent

"Can it, all of you. We're entering the atmosphere in t-minus 60 seconds. Strap in and shut up." Said Julia sternly from the cockpit

"Ooh, someone's got a temper." Whispered Zhang to Hank, who nodded in agreement

The stealth vessel came into the planet's atmosphere fast and low.

"Shields are holding. Coming out of the atmosphere, now." Said Julia from the captain's chair

The cloud layer broke suddenly, and the vast expanse of forest made itself apparent.

Hank whistled

"Nice view from up here."

"Where are we landing captain?" asked Zhang

"LZ is three kliks north-north west. I'll set us down in approximately two minutes."

The ship slowed, and its VTOL thrusters kicked in, lowering it gently to the ground.

"Alright everyone, we're a couple kliks out from the ruins, it'll take us until nightfall to get there. I'll tell you when to go stealthy and switch to encrypted comms. Move out, Jiles, you're in front, Fuller, back him up. Monroe, you're with me. Ho, get up in those trees and cover us."

Everyone took their positions wordlessly and began the long skulk through the forest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

As Gamma team approached the ruins, it was obvious that humans now inhabited it; cables ran through building to building, the hum of a generator going quietly in the background.

"Alright, encrypted comms only. Activate stealth gear." Said Julia

The team set their colour-changing clothes to dark greens and browns, almost black and almost invisible against the darkness.

They spread out around the compound, each searching for the main computer core that held the research information.

"East building empty." Said Hank

"South clear." Said Jill

"West too. Keep looking." Said Julia

Jack stalked around the north building complex. It was crawling with guards, and Jack was waiting to find a gap in the guard patrols. Finally, he saw a break, just a few seconds but enough. One guard had gone to talk to another, their attention away from a wall that had a low window on the upper floor. Jack sprinted full out, gathering speed and shot up the wall, grabbed the window sill just as a guard rounded the corner below him. The guard looked around a couple of times and, satisfied that there was no-one there, continued along. Jack breathed a sigh of relief and peaked into the window. The room was completely dark, the light from outside offering minimal illumination but enough to make out the outlines of its contents. Jack searched the room, finding nothing but dust and artefacts. Suddenly his comm crackled to life

"Jack, Jack! Watch out, there's a Spartan in your building."

"Zhang, keep it down," whispered Jack "what do you mean Spartan?"

"I mean ONI thought that their little expedition needed some protection. There's a Spartan in that building, second floor, by the window on the east side. It's talking to someone, possible a researcher. That's all I can make out from her- it's on the move. Get going."

"Roger that, thanks."

Jack carefully made his way into the hallway, looking left and right for the mysterious Spartan before progressing forward. Jack found the rest of the rooms on the top floor empty of people and only one lit. Jack proceeded carefully down the stairs, peeking underneath to check for more guards. The large room that made up the entirety of the first floor was fully lit and contained the computer core.

"Jack here, I found the core. Proceeding to insert the infospike."

"Standing by to receive the data. Go ahead." Said Cassandra

Jack changed the colour of his clothes again, making him harder to make out from the outside. He slowly made his way to the terminal in the centre of the room, preparing the infospike as he approached. Once there, he made doubly sure that he was alone before initiating the transfer.

"Infospike is in. Data stream steady."

"Cassandra's receiving, good work there Jack." said Jill with something close to admiration in her voice. Before Jack could interpret her tone of voice, the unmistakable feeling of being watched washed over Jack. He made his way outside as quickly as possible, leaving one or two guards with holes in their chests along the way. He dashed to the cover of the forest, on his way to meet up with the rest of Gamma team.

As he made his way through the trees, suddenly, he was aware of someone very close to him. He stopped, turning around quickly. A fist was coming straight at his face. His training, combined with the instincts of several ancestors thanks to the bleeding effect, allowed him to sidestep the fist and turn the massive armoured arm attached to it. Another half second later, Jack saw the face of the assailant; a Spartan!

Jack went into panic mode, his fear of an extremely superior foe overwhelming his logic and reason. The Spartan, wearing CQB-variant armour turned to face Jack, drawing a pistol from its side. Jack finally came to his senses just in time and redirected the force of the Spartan pointing its pistol at Jack and directed it upwards. The shots fired harmlessly into the night sky, echoing through the forest. The Spartan brought its other hand up for an overhead smash, Jack attempted to block it but his strength wasn't enough; the Spartan's fist came down on Jack's head hard enough to send him reeling backwards. The Spartan followed up with a devastating reverse kick which would have crushed jack's ribs, but Jack brought up his arm, triggering his energy blades at the same time as he blocked the kick with his arm. The Spartan, facing the other way, didn't have time to react as its foot was cut off, its shields flickering.

The Spartan roared in pain and lost its balance, tumbling backwards, blood flowing from the stump of its ankle. Jack moved in to finish the kill; leaping up through the air, arms extended, and stabbed the Spartan through the chest, straight through the heart.

The Spartan convulsed once then fell back, breathing labouredly.

Jack stood up slowly, watching his handiwork.

"You- who- who are-are you?" the Spartan asked in a shaky voice, its T-shaped visor staring at Jack accusingly

"I am just one of many who would see your organisation brought down. ONI may be under the influence of the Templars but that doesn't excuse those who work under its banner and kill my brothers."

"What? Temp- Templars? Are you craz-" the Spartan's head lolled back onto the ground, unmoving.

Jack watched silently, and then radioed the ship.

"Guys, I got something you'll want to see."

"What is it? You're already late for evac." asked Julia, impatient

"Trust me, you'll want to see this."

"So what did you fi- oh, oh god." said Zhang, as he descended from the trees, first to arrive.

"Whoa, seriously? You found a dead Spartan?" asked Hank, a few seconds behind Zhang

"No, I killed-"

"You killed? I find that hard to believe. Even if you came from the great Kenway line, I can scarcely believe you killed a Spartan."

"Actually, with all due respect, captain, the wounds match up. This indicates plasma blades. And it's far too small to be an energy sword. So unless it was you and you're being extremely modest, I have to believe Jack." Said Jill carefully

Julia looked at her and scowled.

"Fine. Either way, bring it back to the ship. I think we can make use of this one way or another."

Hank and Jack dragged the body back to the ship, Zhang carried the foot, slightly repulsed but Julia had ordered that nothing get left behind. This armour was the equivalent of a tier-one asset and the Assassins were going to use anything and everything they got their hands on in order to survive.

"Gamma team, come in Gamma team. This is the Mount Kallos. Status?"

"This is Julia Stroud, Gamma team captain. We're fine, mission a complete success, no witnesses. And we have something for our scientists to drool over."

"You can say that again." Said Zhang from the back

"Roger that Gamma, over and out."

The ship descended onto the hidden landing pad that extended out of the top secret location that the Assassins were based on the planet Venezia, known only to them and certain Insurrectionist members.

As Gamma team left the ship and descended the gangway, Julia grabbed Jack from behind and spun him around to look him in the eye

"Listen here kid and listen good. I don't know how you killed that Spartan, I still don't even _believe _that you killed that Spartan, but you are not about to outdo me. I will not be surpassed by some upstart sprout just because he gets special treatment from the governor. Understand?"

Jack nodded slowly, his face carefully neutral

Julia released him

"Good. As long as you stay out of my way from now on, we shouldn't have a problem."

Julia continued down the gangway, leaving Jack on the ship alone.

"If it helps, her psyche profile lists her as 'prone to emotional outbursts but able to control any form of physical reaction.'" Came a voice from behind Jack

Jack spun around to pinpoint the source of the voice, but saw no-one.

"It's Cassandra. I heard your little discussion. I feel sorry for you, Julia was top of her class in almost everything and she isn't used to being beaten."

"But it wasn't even an objective." Replied Jack, knowing full well what it was

"Even so, I would suggest requesting a transfer to another unit; maybe Delta or Zeta."

Jack thought about it for a second; joining another team did seem like a viable option, and it would certainly solve his problem, but then he remembered Jill, her smile opened up something inside him, something that had died along with Alistair. Jack was never one who normally was into girls, never really had the chance, but something about that smile tugged at his mind, like a fishing hook snagged on a rock. He wanted to find out more about her, she sparked an interest in him that he couldn't explain. He rejected the decision to ask for another team.

He realised that he had been standing there for a long time, causing an awkwardness that fell on the conversation like a settling mist.

"Ah, maybe not. I think it'd be too much of a bother. Besides, I can handle whatever Julia can dish out."

"Alright then, it's your choice."

Jack nodded at the holographic representation and walked off

"Well well, Jill, you may have just been on to something after all." said Cassandra before transferring herself to the computer system


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Good work, all of you. The data you recovered has got out braincases scratching their heads, so it looks like there won't be any more data retrieval missions for a while,"

Jill visibly saddened

"On the other note, excellent work in bringing back a Spartan complete with armour. This provides us with new possibilities that we never even considered."

"Is there anything else sir?" asked Julia

"No, thank you. You're all dismissed."

Gamma team left the room, all except Julia talking to each other in excited tones about what they would do with the armour.

Months later, after several successful missions, Gamma team were called back to the laboratory where project: Prometheus first began.

"Gamma team, please report to section two." Said the voice over the PA

They all walked in, elated over the against-the-odds mission they had just completed; they were tasked with destroying a top secret bioweapon research facility and they had pulled it off flawlessly. The team dynamics had greatly increased in this time, even Julia rarely scolded or threatened Jack, and he and Jill were now close friends. Jill had turned out to be a fun-loving and intellectual individual, and she brought out the best in Jack, who was nowhere near as open with others before he met her.

"Alright, all of your weapons and equipment have shown impressive effectiveness in the field, very nice work, all of you. We have something else we would like to trial, as well as other additions." The scientist turned around to the table behind him and indicated to several small, metal crossbows.

"Now I understand that these may not be the most practical of weapons-"

"Are you kidding? They're from the Stone Age! Crossbows? Seriously people?" Zhang said in an incredulous outburst

"Shut up Zhang, let the man finish. You didn't like your beam rifle until you found out that it was near-silent, and that you could synch your eyepiece with its scope." Remarked Hank

"Yeah, alright." Said Zhang sullenly, Hank glared at him further

"Sorry." Muttered Zhang, and Hank's relentless gaze lifted

"I know these aren't the most practical of weapons, but these have been fitted with every enhancement known to man; reinforced carbon-fibre frame for lightweight durability, variable armour-piercing arrowheads, high tensile strength alloy cable for the bowstring, magnetic acceleration channel for higher stopping power, automatic firing mode, and a little something we picked up from the Brutes,"

The scientist flicked a switch and the arms of the crossbow folded into the body, and a short blade extended out the front.

Hank whistled in admiration

"We hope to make this standard-issue among Assassins in the field, as they're not only stealthy, but effective at up to 350 feet."

"Holy shit, that's good for something that small." Said Zhang, now thoroughly impressed

"You think that's good, wait until you see what we have in store for you Mr Ho. Just over there." The scientist indicated to another table with gauntlets on it.

Zhang walked over to it and picked one up.

"What's so special about it?" he asked

"It has an in-built particle beam firing channel at the bottom, similar to your rifle. Useful at short-to medium range only, but deadly effective."

"Oh, now this I like."

"What else do you have for us Professor?" asked Jack, eager for more

"Well, we also have a jump-jet pack for heavy armour, advanced cloaking tech and shield tech that we pulled from that Spartan you retrieved as well as something we like to call the plasma glove."

"Plasma glove? Do I even want to know?" asked Julia, unimpressed

"It's not for you, so you don't have to. You get the shield tech."

Julia nodded, satisfied, keeping her arms folded

"Miss Monroe, you get the plasma glove. It is virtually as it sounds; a plasma pistol worked into a glove. Make a pincer with your fingers and release to fire, hold them until the bolt glows to fire an overcharged bolt that has-"

"An EMP-like effect. I know how they work, thanks." Finished Jill

"We also figured out how to make plasma grenades, so you'll be receiving a full set of them each. And Mr Jiles, you are getting active camouflage technology. Any questions?"

Jack put his hand up

"Yeah, where did you get all this? The Insurrectionists are good at recovering technology and all that, even though they lost one of our Huragok, but this stuff looks like new. Did the Covenant just give us this stuff?"

"Actually, that is something you may want to discuss with your higher ups. While you guys were away, ONI won the war. The Covenant has been dissolved, and there is now a cease-fire between humans and Sangheili."

Gamma team stood in shocked silence, even Julia raised her eyebrows in surprise

"This isn't a joke, is it?" asked Hank

"No, it's true. The full details are yet to be released publicly but the main thing is that we're not fighting aliens anymore. The rest will have to be revealed by someone else, I've already told you more than I should."

"Gamma team, please make your way to debriefing immediately."

"Yeah yeah, we know." Sighed Jill as Gamma team made their way to the governor's meeting room

"Hey Jack, I want to talk to you privately after debriefing. OK?" whispered Jill

"Yeah sure."

They entered the room and took their designated seats around the large cedar table. Governor Jiles was seated at the head of the table opposite them.

"It has come to my attention that you five are a little behind in current news. As you may know, humanity has won the war against the Covenant. Spartan John-117, Halsey's golden boy, has prevented the Halos from firing by sacrificing himself and saved the galaxy, la-di-dah-di-dah. A cease-fire has been established and we believe Lord Hood intends to reason with the Arbiter to negotiate a peace treaty."

"Well that's good isn't it? No more fighting, no more dying and wasted resources trying to keep ourselves hidden from two enemies, right?" asked Julia

"Yes and no, Venezia is a colony with a long and bloody history with the UNSC, and although it would be extremely unwise for them to attack us and wipe us out if they knew we were here, it's in the Templar's best interests to eliminate us before we can strike while they're vulnerable. They'll be a lot of spots that need refilling in their staff, and if we can get our people in them we can get an advantage. Now that the Covenant is off their backs, they can refocus their efforts to stemming the remaining rebels, and that means us along with them. And I don't think I have to remind any of you about that Vulture incident."

Gamma team all shook their heads solemnly

"Also, we have ascertained through means that I do not wish to disclose here, that the Spartan program was originally in order to eliminate us, and that they were only reassigned to fighting the Covenant because they were much worse."

"Then shouldn't we show them how wrong they were?" asked Zhang with a fierce look of determination on his face

"Not yet, we are going to bide our time, until we are well-enough equipped to take them on. And on that note, we should start your actual debriefing. Your objective was to infiltrate a top-secret biological weapons research facility in the Eridanus system and destroy all research, followed by a large amount of explosive charges set to destroy the life support system of the station in order to mask your escape. How'd it go?"

"Sir, all objectives complete, research destroyed, main researchers "accidently" sucked out into space and life support system compromised. Estimated delay of research is about three and a half years." Reported Julia

"The research was very interesting, I would have liked to see it myself." Said Jill

"If you saw the research then you'll know just how dangerous it is and why no-one should have it."

"Understood governor." Said Jill unhappily

"This is the last bit of information I'm going to show you, and I shouldn't even be doing that, but it is important." The governor pushed some buttons on his chair arm and a page appeared above the holographic emitter in the centre of the table, describing an encounter with a Covenant agent

"In order to ensure long-lasting conflict with the other humans we agree to supply you with certain technologies in exchange for, hey wait a minute! Are you telling me we're trading with the Covenant?" said Hank after reading the first part of the file

"Not the Covenant, just a small group who support us against the Templars, and let's face it, we need all the help we can get."

"But governor, aren't they only doing this because it makes us more vulnerable as a species so that they can wipe us all out as we're fighting amongst ourselves? "queried Julia

"No, the Elite I spoke to gave us his honour that they would not attack any Assassins as long as we provided them with our research data on the Forerunners."

"Ah, there's always a catch." Said Zhang sagely

"When wouldn't there be a catch in politics?" rebutted Jack

"Either way, if they try to stab us in the back, they're going to have another thing coming, wouldn't you all agree?"

Gamma team all nodded their heads in unison

"Alright then, dismissed."

The governor and Gamma team stood up and left the room

As everyone made their way back to their quarters, Jill pulled Jack aside in an abandoned room and closed the door

"What is it you wanted to tell me about?" he asked

After making sure there was no-one around to hear them, Jill said

"OK, you can come out now Cassandra."

Cassandra projected herself between the two of them

"I have the data, do you want to go over it with him around?"

"It's fine, we can trust him." replied Jill, working on the holographic display panel with the data from the research facility on the screen.

"Hey, isn't that-"

"Yes it is. Cassandra saw it and told me that there was more to it than we first thought, so I had her take a compressed copy of it before we blew it up. Nice job by the way."

"Thanks, it's fun making things explode."

"I know, you've told me a couple of times. Anyway, I'm going to go over this until I find out what's going on behind the scenes. There's much more to it than any of us know and I will need your help. Can I trust you not to tell anyone?"

"Absolutely," replied Jack immediately

"Really? Not even your uncle?"

"You have my word, by my honour." Said Jack, giving a mock bow

"That renaissance gentlemanly behaviour really doesn't work on you, you know. Leave that to your ancestors." Said Jill with a silly grin on her face

"Alright. When can I expect to be told everything?"

"Tomorrow. Hey, we're still on for, wingsuit gliding I think you called it, right? You said you'd teach me."

"'Course we are. I'll meet you by the cliffs in the morning."

"Ok then."

Jack turned to leave

"Oh, Jack, one more thing," called Jill from the room

Jack turned around, and Jill walked up to him and quickly kissed him on the cheek once. As she stood back, she blushed a little

"Thanks for not telling anyone. It, it means a lot to me."

Jack didn't show it on the outside, but he was too stunned to saw anything, so he just nodded and left.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The next morning, Jack went down to the mess hall and ate breakfast by himself. Jill was nowhere to be seen, but Zhang sat down opposite him with a bowl of HAL-O's and a glass of orange juice.

"Hey Jack, how ya doing?" asked Zhang before setting to his cereal

"Fine thanks. You?" replied Jack

Zhang didn't bother chewing before responding with "Eh, can't complain."

As he pronounced the 'p' a bit of high protein, low sugar cereal spat out of his mouth and landed on Jack's plate.

"Well, yes you can. In fact, that's what you do most of the time actually. And do me a favour, chew, swallow and _then _talk. I don't want to see what happens to things that go into your mouth." Said Jack, slightly disgusted

Zhang indulged him and swallowed before continuing

"Sooo, you and Jill huh?" he took another spoonful of cereal

Jack flinched slightly at the question, if Zhang noticed, which was almost certain, thought Jack, he didn't react

"Sort of. If you mean that we're a couple of something, then no; we're just friends."

"Right, that's why you two were alone together in that boardroom for a few minutes yesterday. What else could you have been doing besides making out?"

Jack blushed slightly as he recalled the kiss. It wasn't making out, actually Jack wasn't sure what it was. The more he learnt about Jill, the less he seemed to understand. It gave him a kind of thrill, like he never knew what was going to happen next.

"Aha! I knew it." Zhang smiled smugly as he leant back in his chair. After a few seconds he leant back forward with a serious look on his face, like someone who was about to impart their final wishes before they died.

"Try not to screw it up. You're at the age where you build up a reputation with girls, and it'll influence the kind of crowd you attract later. You seem like a nice enough kid, and it's obvious she's at least a little into you too. Make sure you don't waste a second being indecisive; if you want this to go all the way, you should check if you can hit the mark from where you are; plan your approach, find the best angle of attack and then take your shot."

"Zhang, are you talking about girls or about sniping?" asked Jack, the sudden change in Zhang's lingo not lost on him

"In this case, there's no difference. I should know; it got me in and out of several relationships before I made any long-term commitments. I suppose those rules may have changed now that the war's over and people can look to tomorrow without worrying about being vaporized by Covenant glassing beams but still, life is short," He took a swig of his orange juice "And she's a good person too, as far as I can tell. Middle twenties is a good time for people to experience new relationships, after that you learn how to make it go the distance but sometimes you make it in one go."

"What are you saying?" asked Jack, now a little confused

"I'm saying that if this is going to go somewhere with you two, or if this is just leftover hormones from adolescence, you should work hard towards whatever you want to do."

Zhang began again on his cereal

Jack sat quietly for a minute, contemplating Zhang's words. He was right; he should go for this if that was what he wanted. Without parents to help him through his teenage years, he just kept his distance from most people, rarely interacting directly, always an observer. It was this habit that was his saving grace which gave him some form of the social interactions he now enjoyed.

"I don't know; I need time to think about this." Said Jack, more confused than he let on

Zhang had finished his cereal and was downing his juice

"Ahhh, that's good. If you like, I'll take you down to the firing range. It always helps me think. Maybe it'll help you too."

"We have a firing range? I thought we just had a virtual training field."

"Well, we do, but I convinced some of the training marshals to let me set up a course down at the edge of the underground forest."

"Huh, alright then. Sounds good. Thanks for the tips and stuff Zhang."

"Anytime Jack," Zhang leaned forward and patted Jack on the shoulder before getting up and leaving the mess hall.

Jack set out to the cliffs, his wingsuit gliding equipment set out and ready to fly. As he started his pre-jump equipment checks, Jill came climbing up the cliff path.

"Hey Jack!" she called

Jack waved hello and waved her forward.

"So, how do you do this? The name doesn't quite make sense, I don't see any wings on this suit, just these flaps of fabric." she asked

"Well, one of my earliest memories of my dad was him telling me of an animal native to earth called the flying squirrel. It has stretches of skin between its arms and legs that allow it to glide from tree to tree. That's what this suit is based off. My uncle Alistair took me out to try this once and I loved it. He told me this was what military insertions used to get into secure locations from the top, because parachutes are large and slow. With this flight suit," he indicated his flight suit, with the same kind of stretch of material as a flying squirrel between the arms and legs "you can glide in much the same way as the animal. You keep your body flat and your arms and legs out, stretching the material so it's taught and catches the wind. You glide down until reach the ground, at the edge of the forest."

"Isn't that dangerous?" she asked, anxious

"Of course it's dangerous, only if you're careless. I was fine the first time I did it, and uncle Alistair was always very protective of me, he knew what he was doing and so do I. you're not the first person I've taught how to do this."

Jill seemed to be satisfied with his answer, and allowed him to help her into the second flight suit.

"I look ridiculous in this, don't I?" she asked, giving a slow turn

"Only as ridiculous as I look." Replied Jack

"Oh no, then I look completely ridiculous!" she said, obviously joking, and gave Jack one of her heart-warming smiles

The pair of them put on their helmets and began to talk through their mikes.

"Alright then, let's do this. Follow my lead. If you run into trouble, pull your chute. I'll come find you if that happens. Ready?"

"Ready!" she looked excited

"Alright then, get as good a run up as possible and-" Jack loped forward and took a nose dive straight down. Jill screamed and waddled towards the edge to look for him. As she approached the edge, he shot straight up as if someone had launched him out of a cannon.

"-Jump!" he finished as he came up

He levelled out and glided down the landscape. Jill, heart racing, slowed her breathing and took a run up, leaping off the cliff edge with so many years of training that she felt no fear when she was finally aloft. At first the experience was terrifying but she soon felt how good it was to fly. It wasn't something you could experience in a simulator- that was for sure. Jack slowed down a bit ahead of her and soon they were flying abreast of each other.

Jack looked at her and smiled.

"How is it?" he asked

"It's like nothing I've ever done before, like an air assassination that never ends!"

"Good isn't it?"

"Amazing!" she agreed

"I always found it so, not-human to do this, that's why it gives me such a feeling of freedom, like the laws of nature and humanity no longer apply to me."

"Sounds right."

The two flew over the vast expanse of forest for several minutes, Jack gave Jill some more tips on controlling her speed, direction and altitude. Eventually, the patch of ground with a long runway appeared on the horizon. Jack radioed Jill

"This is our stop. Bring yourself lower to the ground. You're a beginner so use your chute to stop."

"Okay."

They approached at a slower speed, gradually losing height until they were about two hundred feet above the ground. Jack signalled and Jill pulled on her ripcords and her chute blossomed out around her back, jerking her backwards to a grinding halt followed by a slow glide. Jack slowed until he was almost floating above the ground then touched down with ease. Jill floated down beside him, breathing heavily.

"That was incredible, can we go again?" she asked

"Nah, we should probably be heading back by now. It's a long trek back to the mountain, even longer to get back up to the ridge, and you want to walk as little as possible in this getup."

"Really? It doesn't feel that heavy."

"It's not, it's just ungainly; it gets in the way and snags on branches and rocks."

"I know what ungainly means Jack. Alright then. Shouldn't we have brought transport then?"

"Already on it." Jack reached down and pulled a flare from his belt that Jill hadn't noticed before and lit it, the near-invisible smoke trailed into the sky, its only identifying trait was the way the heated particles refracted the light that passed through them. Soon, a UH-144S Falcon appeared over the horizon and bore down on them.

"Is that our ride?" asked Jill

"Yeah, I pulled in a favour with one of the off-duty pilots to pick us up and take us back to the hideout."

"You know, it's not really a hideout; it's more like a base of operations or a forward command centre."

Jack smiled at her words,

"That's one of the things I like about you: you see things in an intelligently different way, to take something and analyse it, then put it back together in the most efficient way to view it."

"That's why I went into logistics and tactical. But I love field work, so that's what I signed up for."

The Falcon landed, and a woman's voice on the radio said

"Venezia Air, last flight back to mount Kallos. All passengers please take your seats and strap in."

"Venezia Air?" asked Jill with a wry grin

"Holly thinks she's funny." Jack said simply with a shrug and climbed aboard with Jill behind him. The Falcon's rotors picked up speed and it rose gently back into the sky and headed back to the mountain.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"You know, I used to be terrified of space travel; I mean, the general vastness of space, with no definable up or down, since it's in three dimensions you can travel any way you like, with no gravity to direct you. That's when uncle Alistair took me up for my first wingsuit gliding lesson. After experiencing the thrill of flying unaided, he told me that was what it meant to be in space, that you don't have to worry about your direction as long as you didn't hit anything too hard." Reminisced Jack

"Or something hits you." Interjected Holly over the radio

"Right, that too. Slipspace still kind of creeps me out a little though."

"I know what you mean," Jill shivered slightly "It gives me this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach."

"So that's something personal about me. Your turn."

"Well, let's see… Well, when I was six, I always wanted to be a supermodel." Said Jill

"What? Really?" said Jack

"Yeah, it sounds really silly now, being in the middle of a war and such, but that's what I wanted to do." Jill leant her head on the headrest behind her, as if recalling a long-lost memory

"I grew up on one of the outer colonies that weren't affected by the war so much, in a loose grasp of the Templars. But me and my sister, our favourite game was to get into mom's wardrobe and dress up and walk up and down the hallway, each laughing at how ridiculous the other looked in mom's oversized dresses and shoes."

"Well I'm sure you would have done a great job if you'd chosen to do that." Jack blurted out, suddenly feeling very embarrassed. In the cockpit, Holly looked over her shoulder and arched an eyebrow behind her helmet.

"Oh? What do you mean?" asked Jill, amused at Jack's reaction

"You know, you're good-looking and everything…"

There was a few seconds of silence then Jill burst out laughing

"Hahaha! Oh, you should see your face, you look as red as a tomato!"

Jack blushed deeper and Jill settled down

"But thanks, I'm glad you think I'm good-looking. You're not so bad yourself Jack. Maybe if you gelled up your hair a little," Jill ruffled Jack's helmet hair.

Now it was Jack's turn to laugh and Jill joined in.

A few more seconds of silence passed between them

"I really enjoyed myself today. Thanks for taking me out to do this." Said Jill

"I had fun too. I'd take you out again anytime you like- I mean out on a glide again, not like a date or that kind of thing, not a date-" Jack began to fumble over his words

"Jack calm down, I get that it wasn't a date. Besides, what kind of date would it be if you were to take a girl out to nearly meet her death?"

"Ah, well, I wouldn't have let that happen, because I kind of thought… I would be able to…"

"Well, you're both here now, so I guess Jack isn't such a bad guy after all. Even if this was a date, you guys made it out OK, and in this line of work, that's all you can really ask for, right?" asked Holly from the cockpit

"Good point Holly." _And thanks for jumping in there. _Jack added in his mind

"Then why don't we have a little experiment." said Jill "You can take me out on a date. A proper one, a nice dinner and all that kind of thing and we'll see how you do on your own."

"What!?" said Jack

"What's wrong? Is that such a bad idea?"

"No! No, not at all, it's just; I've never taken a girl out on a date before." Jack began to blush slightly and lowered his head into his collar in an attempt to mask it

"What? Really?" asked Holly and Jill simultaneously

"No, I never really interacted with people during my teenage years."

"Why not? You seem to make friends easily now."

"Yeah, I watched from a distance and observed the best way to approach someone in social situations, that's how I do that now, but I never saw anyone go on a date before, so I don't know how to go about doing that."

"Well, how about the night after our next mission you have to take me out somewhere nice. And make sure you come back in one piece so that you can make it happen."

"OK, OK I will. I'll do something special, and I'll keep it a surprise until I get back."

"I expect to be impressed, nothing short of amazing."

"I'll try not to disappoint you."

The next day, Jack went down to the animus training labs and looked for the doctor who trained him and asked

"Doctor, you said you compartmentalised each aspect of my ancestor's memories into specific training programs, right?"

"Yes, we took most of what was useful in a lot of situations; we have a range from 1400s to today. Why, what were you after?"

Jack fidgeted a bit before continuing

"I was wondering if you had any programs for um, dating."

The doctor stared at him with an amused smile on her face.

"If you don't that's fine, I just wondered-"

"Oh no, we have those. Some quite interesting ones too, some of your ancestors had a way with women. We use them for infiltration training; some of our undercover operatives have very little idea of how to seduce people into telling them vital information or letting their guard down to be assassinated."

"Really? Huh, either way, I figured that in order to pass on the genetic memories, they would have to had children, and in order to do that, they would have had to, you know."

"Yes, I do. Don't worry, I'll help you, and I'll save you the embarrassment of telling me what you plan to do with the knowledge. Since you have no parents to help you and governor Jiles is single, I suppose this is as close as you're going to get to guidance from your family members. Hang on while I load the program."

Jack sat down in the animus and synchronised with his ancestor, Edward Kenway. Jack was already familiar with this swashbuckling pirate Assassin, and slipped into the role easily. Only this time, he was dressed like a nobleman, bartering for permission to accompany his current landlord's daughter to a ball in London. Jack played through the experience successfully but didn't end up getting much useful information out of it.

Jack exited the animus and asked

"Do you have anything a little more, recent? I don't think appealing to her father is going to work."

"You're right, I didn't think that through, sorry. That was listed under ye olde dancing with a dating subtitle."

The doctor brought up a list of files on the screen

"OK, these are your last 17 ancestors, so about 500 years back. This should do it."

"If you're sure…" Jack shook his head disbelievingly and settled back in. the program loaded again and this time, Jack was experiencing his great-great-great grandfather, Jordan Miles; a wealthy businessman who lived around 2380-2468. Jack went through several stages of his life, noting how Jordan attracted women of high standards and upbringing, using his charm and wit to get their attention and his compassionate and mysterious nature to keep them hooked in. He was married three times and went on a countless amount of dates. After committing most of the good ones to memory, Jack was satisfied that he was ready.

He emerged from the animus confidently, thanking the doctor and then went to make preparations.

Three days later, Alpha, Gamma and Eta teams were called in to an emergency mission.

The 15 Assassins assembled around the holographic display, each of them hiding the concern as to what could be so important that an emergency mission had to be planned.

"Alright everyone, we just received word of a new weapons program being developed by Misriah armoury on Mars. You are to intercept a cargo transport en-route to Mars and use it to sneak into the plant undetected."

The leader of Eta team put his hand up

"Do we know the nature of this weapon?"

"Yes we do; they are attempting to reboot the military's old interest in microwave weaponry using a variation of microwave radiation and gamma ray transmission, and if our intelligence is correct, they will be able to fry the head of anyone inside a ship that's hit by the weapon, leaving it free for them to salvage our tech and secrets. We were too late to stop the initial testing so the best we can do is to destroy the full-size one and steal all data relating to it and hopefully either come up with a defence or an improvement for it. Eta team, you're in charge of destroying the weapon, Alpha, you're on data retrieval, Gamma, you'll be split up to provide assistance. Stroud, Ho and Jiles, you're with Eta, Monroe and Fuller, you're with Alpha. Any other questions?"

"Sir, isn't this mission extremely risky? We're going to Mars, it's not like it's one of those out of the way planets, this is practically attacking the lion's den head-on!" said someone from Alpha team

"Maybe so, but what other choice do we really have?" replied Julia

The Alpha team member remained respectfully silent

"Any more questions?" repeated the governor

Tense silence followed

"No? Good, everyone gear up, you'll be going in hard and fast but try to stay stealthy, this isn't a directly Templar-owned corporation so they won't hesitate to kill you, as they won't see any benefit of keeping you alive. Good luck to all of you," Jiles saluted "Nothing is true."

"Everything is permitted." Replied the Assassins

"That's all I have to say, now go!"

The Assassins ran to the Albatross-class dropships awaiting them at the end of the hangar. Once each was ready to go, the hangar was cleared of personnel and the ships launched. Once they were clear of the atmosphere, they docked with the cruiser _Jackdaw _which then engaged its upgraded slipspace drives and neatly sliced open the fabric of space as they knew it, revealing the extra dimension of space that allowed for faster than light travel at near pinpoint accuracy.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_Jackdaw_ exited slipspace just behind Jupiter, using its enormous size to mask its approach

The crew all exited from the cryosleep pods wearily.

"You know, with all these advancements we have that the UNSC don't, is it too much to ask for a more comfortable way to travel?" asked Zhang, slowly getting out of the pod

"Ah, quit your bitching. Just be thankful for what we do have. Without a lot of it, you wouldn't be here to complain anyway." Remarked Hank from across the cryo banks.

"Attention all staff, slipspace travel has been ceased, now travelling at sublight speeds until objective reached. ETA, 12 hours and 15 minutes."

Julia stood up and stretched, saying, "I'm going to take a nap, if any of you disturb me, I'm going to kill you." She walked out of the cryo banks towards the crew quarters

"Why does she need more sleep? She was just asleep for four whole days." Said Jack

"Probably a granny nap." Said Jill, and they both giggled

"Hey, you see those two?" said Zhang to Hank, away from them "I gave Jack some girl advice and it seems to have done the job." He said proudly

Hank guffawed at Zhang and when he calmed down he responded, "You gave Jack girl advice? Were you trying to get her to hate him or something? Why should he listen to you about girls?"

"Hey, I know what I want in a woman, and when I can see she doesn't have it, I cut it off. Not my fault of they take it badly." Zhang shrugged, "The kid seemed at a loss and from what I've seen, that interferes with the way he thinks, like he can't see his glasses on top of his head." Zhang smiled and nudged Hank with his elbow. Hank rolled his eyes and sighed

"Please, let's not tell the story again."

Out in space, on the other side of the solar system, the frigate _Montague _also dropped out of slipspace, carrying cargo for Misriah armoury. The captain was talking to his second in command at the mess hall about it,

"What is so important that they have to stick an ONI spook in with the cargo? We're not used to this kind of delivery crap."

"I agree sir, but you know we're not supposed to ask questions about it, especially when ONI is involved. But still, something's up. From what I saw on the inventory, it's just raw materials for making rifles. Everything else was classified."

"You may be right. I have a friend in JOTUN heavy who might be able to shed some light on the subject."

"I thought JOTUN and Misriah were rival companies?"

"They are, and Misriah has the bigger military contract, so who better to get information from than the jealous other guy?"

The lieutenant leaned back and nodded sagely.

"Of course, industrial espionage."

The frigate continued on its way towards Mars, passing Mercury in its orbit and slingshotting around the sun, increasing their speed and reducing travel time.

"Captain, target has slingshotted around the sun, as predicted. Your orders?"

"Continue on course, prepare to release the decoy. What's their ETA?"

"Approximately one hour."

"Good, I'll get the teams ready." The captain keyed in the PA in his chair arm,

"All Assassins involved in operation: RED PHOENIX please make your way to hangar bay two, we will be releasing the bait in exactly forty minutes. Good luck out there." The captain keyed the PA off

An Insurrectionist sergeant who was making notes for an evaluation for the continuation of their assistance with the Assassin order jotted down notes on his datapad, he hadn't said a word the whole trip, except to ask where the bathroom was. The captain was confident of this mission's success, because if it wasn't, none of them would be around much longer to worry about it.

The Assassins, all 15 of them, were assembled in hangar bay two, a mangled-looking civilian craft awaiting them.

"Please tell me we don't have to ride in that." said Hank resentfully

"Yes we do, Fuller. We need to look as banged up as possible; otherwise they won't care enough to "help" us." replied Julia.

It had been 35 minutes and the crew was making its final checks to make sure that they could still guide it out where it needed to be so that the target would see them. After they had done so, everyone got on board and got into extremely uncomfortable positions; Jack had to be stuck under a fallen beam and Zhang had his legs stuck between malfunctioning doors. All this was to increase the authenticity of the ruse they would use to appeal to the frigate captain's sense of humanity. With a final wave, the ship was jettisoned into space, where its minimal directional thrusters nudged it the direction of _Montague's_ course.

"Captain, you may want to see this." Said the radar operative onboard _Montague_

"What is it?" he asked, not sure at what he was looking at; it seemed like a hunk of space junk, until he recognised the extremely mangled shape of a civilian craft

"Ouch, what happened to them?" he asked

"Unknown sir, but we are receiving a distress call."

"Patch it through."

A grainy image appeared on the screen, and the bloodstained face of a woman could be just made out.

"Please, is… out there? We… elp, pirates attacke… immediate assistance." Said the woman, the transmission so garbled it was near impossible to make out what she was saying, but the captain understood anyway and ordered it to be picked up.

"Alright everyone, they're falling for it. They're changing course." Said Jill from the damaged comm screen

"Nice acting there girl, you good at this." Said the leader of Alpha team, a tall dark-skinned woman with braided dark hair

"Thanks, it wasn't that hard, honestly I want to get off this rust bucket as soon as possible, I'm worried the integrity of the hull will fall any second and we'll all be suffocating."

"Why you gotta think like that? Save it for when things go to hell. We got a mission to complete." She clapped Jill on the back hard and she fell forward a little

"Sorry, sometimes I don't know my own strength." The team leader went back to her team, making sure none of them were seriously damaged by the multitude of false injuries they had incurred.

_Montague_ brought them into the ship, their "luggage" was stowed in the hold and the passengers questioned

"We were on our way to Mars, back from a business trip with one of our few surviving contractors, when all of a sudden we were attacked by pirates, we had no idea where they came from or who they were, but they shot up our ship real good and stole most of our valuables. We were left dead in space and they'd taken our reactor. We had just enough power to keep life support and communications running until you found us. Thank you so much by the way. The last ship that passed us, in the other direction I think, they didn't even give us a second glance." Revealed Hank

"Alright, sounds like you folks went through quite the traumatic experience. Pirates are still a very real threat these days. Were they human or Covenant?"

"Human, all of them wearing hoods and they had some kind of knife that looked like it shot out of their sleeves."

"Well you folks just rest up. We'll take you to Mars since that's where we're going anyway."

"If you could drop us off at the JOTUN factory complex that would be great."

"Oh, well if that's the case, could you ask a friend of mine what this shipment is for? Everything's been classified at my end."

"Sure, what's his name?"

"Barry Marlow, works in R and D."

"OK, sure thing."

The captain stood up and walked back to the bridge, only to be intercepted by the ONI operative, and he was mad.

"Why have you taken survivors? That was not part of the mission, captain! Do I have to report you to my superiors for delaying an important mission?"

"I stand by my actions, sir, and respectfully ask that you trust my judgement. It's wrong for anyone to have to die out in space when help is right in front of them. I think that it's an admirable trait, especially in times like these. Don't you?"

"Oh, you'll get your 'admirable trait' alright, this delivery is of the utmost importance, you need to get it to its destination ASAP."

"And that's what we're doing. We'll make it there on time thanks to the gravity slingshot effect. That's why we took this course. Now if you'll excuse me-"

"I want them off this ship the minute we land. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely sir, now please allow me to return to the bridge to ensure that happens."

The captain sidled past the ONI man and jogged back down the corridor. The ONI man looked at the band of men and women who looked like they'd been through hell and back and glared at them, then turned and walked away.

"Alright, we're on board but we're not out of the woods yet. We still have to get to Misriah undetected. You all have your orders and routes, don't stray from them otherwise it could cost us all." whispered Julia to the assembled group, glaring sideways at Jack as she said the last part. Jack responded with a steely gaze.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

As _Montague _docked with the orbital tether, the Assassins were making sure their "luggage" was secure and picked up and left, thanking the captain, who smiled and waved them on their way, feeling immensely good about himself.

"Sucker, that ONI guy was right to scold him for picking us up. Well, at least we're here now, so I guess we have that to thank him for." Said Zhang to Hank

"I liked him; he seems like one of the few decent military folk left. Those kind of people are a dying breed, and such a tragedy too." He replied

"Ah, come off it. You're not telling me you're going soft on ONI now are you?"

"But he isn't ONI, just UNSC. He's just following orders, and those orders seem to be the kind taken with a grain of salt. He wasn't particularly fond of that ONI operative either."

"Buddy, enough. We got work to do. Get on the elevator and shut up for the rest of the trip down. Okay?"

Hank laughed, "That's rich, coming from you, _Ho._"

Zhang scowled

"Don't, don't ever do that again. You know how much I hate that."

"Yes, yes I do."

The Assassins boarded the tether and began their descent down to the surface of Mars. It had been terraformed a long time ago and had lost its meaning of 'the red planet.'

"Hey Jack, did you know that Mars used to be an uninhabitable planet?" asked Jill

"Yep, I hear it used to be just one big red rock with trace amounts of water."

"Did you also know it was named after the ancient Roman god of war?"

"No, I did not know that. Why would you name planets after gods?"

"Maybe because they looked up in the sky and though that was what they were."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Jill nudged Jack and brought his attention forward; the elevator was nearly at the surface

"We're nearly there. I'll see you later. And don't forget to stay alive so we can keep our date afterwards."

"You got it, I don't die easily." Replied Jack, clenching his fist in confidence

The elevator finished its descent and the Assassins casually departed in small groups in different directions.

About an hour later, an alarm went off inside Misriah armoury; an intruder had been detected in the north quadrant. Guards from all over the compound rushed to apprehend them, only to find out that it was a false alarm. Cautiously, some of the guards fanned out to determine the cause.

On a ridge at the south side, Zhang radioed the other Assassins

"Ok, most of the guards have been diverted. Alpha team, you're clear."

"Roger that. We're going in." replied the dark-skinned woman in charge of Alpha

She gestured to her team, Jill and Hank to follow her. The seven of them snuck around the back of the compound, Jill took out the cameras with her plasma glove's overcharge shot and they got in undetected.

As the guards who were investigating the disturbance at the north side fanned east, Eta and the rest of Gamma team made their way into the west side, narrowly avoiding another guard patrol. They approached the inner fence. A sign hanging off it said "Warning: electric fence. Intruders will be prosecuted."

Jack gave a chuckle and Julia crept forward and activated her plasma blade, cutting through the fence like it was nothing. The other eight members went through the hole, with Jack covering them invisibly.

Alpha team made their way into the facility that housed the vehicle production line. The computer terminal they had to access was on the other side, the facility guarded by two squads of patrolling soldiers. Alpha team split into close and long-range fighters, with the two snipers in Alpha covering both entrances. The other five Assassins went through the facility, moving along with the parts of the vehicles being constructed, the huge plates of metal being pressed into shape easily hiding the group as they stalked through the huge machines. Two Assassins from Alpha, Jill and Hank, headed towards the terminal. Flat against the wall, Jill indicated for Hank to cover her as she initiated the transfer. He did so, heaving the heavily modified turret off his back and into a position that let him cover all angles.

"Things are about to get heavy." He said to Jill

"That's fine, I know you're the man for the kind of job. Just make sure they die before we do and we're fine."

"Good, 'cause I think that one over there saw me."

Sure enough, a guard on the catwalk above them brought up his rifle and took aim. Before he could get a clear shot on either of them, a heavy weight dropped down onto him and a blade pierced his heart. He cried out in shock but was stifled by his own lips jammed together on the floor.

Jill continued with renewed vigour, bypassing all the standard security firewalls and hacking the classified file database.

"Damn it, these guys really wanted to keep this secret. I've never seen this level of encryption on a standard industrial computer."

"Can you crack it?"

"Of course,"

"Then we picked the right girl for the job. Hey, maybe this isn't a usual civilian computer system."

"ONI probably has their name written all over it. But if they really wanted to ensure the safety if their assets, they'd assign an AI."

Cassandra, who'd been silent up until now, commented, "Even if there was, I'm equipped with the latest and greatest in AAI software, and you have the hardware."

"AAI?" asked Hank

"Isn't it obvious?" retorted Jill getting back to work.

"Got it! Ok, planting infospike now."

Jill stabbed the port on the side of the screen and the data began flowing away at a vast rate of gigabytes.

Another guard saw the Assassin dispose of the dead guard and gave a yell. Recognising the danger, instead of engaging, he ran to the security panel to raise the alarm.

The other Assassin dropped behind him and ran to catch him. As he raised his silenced pistol and fired, hitting the back of the guard's knee, the guard had reached the alarm and his fingers brushed the touch pad, sending it into shut down instead of alarm. The guard hit the floor and then tried to climb back up and try again, but his venture was stopped short by a M225 semi-armour piercing round through his head. He slumped to the ground dead.

"Area is secure. Security system offline." Reported the Assassin

"Roger that, that makes my job easier." Replied Hank

"Alright, and we have a go." Said Jill as she pulled the infospike from the terminal with a flourish

"Alright everyone, let's move." Said Alpha team leader over the radio

Alpha team, Jill and Hank slunk back out the door and back through the way they came in.

Jack's team had just made it to the storage facility when things started to go bad. One of the taller Assassins had been spotted and fired at, a bullet wound through his shoulder incapacitated him and guards flooded in and pinned them in place.

"Return fire, frag arrows!" said Julia, the others willingly obliged. Jack pulled his crossbow off his back and looked down the sights, taking one who was next to another and firing. Seven high-speed arrows launched through the air, impaling the ground and people when they landed. Jack's shot hit right between the two guards and detonated, sending shards of metal into their sides and faces. The rest of the guards suffered a similar fate or had large portions of their bodies blown up. The rest who survived were taken out by the Assassins who charged in and took them out personally. Once the area was cleared, they made their way forward, the one who was injured had his shoulder patched up and biofoam applied so he could use his arm again.

"Split up, we'll take the front entrance. Eta, you take the rooftops." ordered Julia

The leader of Eta nodded silently in acknowledgement.

The teams split up accordingly, Eta team climbing the roof to cover the entrance. Jack was ordered to go in first, with Julia behind him and Zhang bringing up the rear.

Jack burst through the door, crossbow up. Two security guards standing next to the lift were caught off guard and brought their weapons up.

"Halt! You are in a restricted area. Put down your weapon or we'll- guh!"  
Jack shot the man in the neck, his spine snapped in half by the impact arrow tip. The other fired at Jack, but he went invisible after firing the first shot, making it near-impossible to hit him.

"Code yellow, I repeat, code yellow; sector three, casua-uhn."

Jack had stabbed the man in the heart, silencing his call for help. As he went to the door to motion the others in, he heard the response on the dead guard's radio

"Roger that, we'll send kill teams to assist. Stand by."

Jack's eyes went wide, and he ushered the others inside with haste, explaining the situation.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"They've got kill teams coming for us; we need to get to the objective quickly." Said Jack, appearing calm while he panicked internally. This wasn't lost on Julia,

"Why are you so scared? You killed a Spartan before, you could take out a kill team of ODSTs. And even if you won't, I will." Replied Julia, utterly calm

"Actually, kill teams are highly trained operatives, nowadays they're only used to guard high-priority assets and sometimes they have Spartans with them. This microwave thing must be pretty good if that's the case." Commented a member of Eta team who'd dropped down off the roof

"Not the point here, the point is they have one coming after us. Let's get out of sector three as quick as possible." said Jack, motioning towards the elevator. The eight Assassins gathered in the large elevator that had plenty of room for them to walk about in. Zhang took the opportunity to set up his rifle in the meantime, covering the whole underground area they were descending into. As they came halfway down the chute, the full picture was revealed to them: a massive machine, with a large circular dish sticking out the front and angled towards the sky stood in the middle of the cavern. People milled about, making adjustments and preparations.

"Holy shit, they're planning to fire that thing at ships?" exclaimed Jack, dropping a rare curse, a habit picked up from Hank

"Obviously. That's our target. Are the charges ready to go?" asked Julia

"Yes, stolen Fury tac-nukes prepped and ready to go." Replied an Eta team member

Fury tactical nukes were the equivalent of nuclear grenades, they would blow a sizable hole in the weapon and the EMP would fry any data Alpha and Gamma hadn't already stolen.

"Everyone in position. We're too far out for them to notice us but watch our sixes anyway, Ho." Said Julia

"Yes ma'am. I'm your shooter."

"Jack, you scout the area cloaked. When your power unit begins to decline, hide until it recharges. We can't afford to waste time with you constantly retreating. Everyone else, wait for his signal to go."

Julia walked towards Jack slowly and said to him quietly, "You'd better not screw this up, because if I have to haul their asses out of the fire, you turn off the lights. Got that?"

Jack swallowed, "Got it." Jack knew that 'turn off the lights' meant that it was up to him to finish the mission, no matter what the cost.

Jack engaged his cloak and stalked through the crates, machinery and personnel. No-one noticed the slight shimmer of his outline, and for that he was eternally grateful. As he approached a large crane that was fitting an antenna to the weapon, his cloak began to flicker, and he dashed into the shadows. As he waited for his cloak to recharge, he radioed the team that it was safe to continue forward. One at a time, the Assassins crept forward, occasionally taking one or two engineers along the way, quietly. Once they'd reached the depot Jack hid at, his cloak was fully charged and Julia hissed for him to hurry up. He obliged, disappearing from view.

"Approaching the drop site now. Bring me the nuke, on my mark… now!" hissed Jack through his radio

The Assassin crept forward, the fury tac-nuke cradled in her hands like a newborn. Even though it wouldn't detonate unless the detonator was switched or the bomb tampered with, she still understood the implications of the nuclear device's potential.

She left it on a crate near Jack's position and made a break for the exit, having all the other charges set to blow that would bring the whole cavern and ground above it down. She ran as fast as she could, her backscatter visor indicating any potential onlookers spotting her from behind a crate. What she didn't see was the engineer on break, coming down from his station who just happened to look down to check his footing and saw her. As his eyes widened in surprise at a person in a hooded cloak running for the lift, which was strictly not allowed, a near-silent beam of charged particles cut neatly through his forehead, ceasing any further thought. As his body fell to the ground with a loud thump, two guards saw it and pulled out their pistols and called and emergency. An alarm triggered and the remaining Assassins bolted.

"Shit." Whispered Ho

"Ho, cover our escape. We're coming up." Said Julia through the radio

"But what about Jack?"

"He's turning off the lights, he'll be fine. We, on the other hand, won't be unless you cover our escape, I see wolf spiders being brought online throughout the cavern. Take them out."

Zhang sighed, "Roger that, acquiring targets."

Zhang looked through his smart eyepiece, linked to the scope on his rifle, and targeted the weak spot on each of the wolf spider's mechanism, causing them to instantly shut down and self-repair, giving Eta team a few more minutes to escape. After he took out the one closest to the elevator, he looked for Jack. After a few seconds of determining whether or not that shimmer was him, he spotted him picking up the tac-nuke and making his way to the bomb site.

"Come on Jack, make it damn it make it!" he muttered under his breath

The rest of the Assassins had made it to the elevator and were ready to ascend. Julia hit the switch and Zhang was forced to pull his rifle back and abandon Jack

"Good luck Jack, make it count." He said to himself

Jack ran as fast as his legs would carry him, the tac-nuke tucked under one arm like a football, though he'd never played the game. Bewildered workers tried to get a grip on what they'd just seen, but as Jack still had his cloak on they weren't quite sure of what they saw. Jack reached the drop zone and set the tac-nuke away under a support beam that would reduce the whole machine to a pile of scrap. Satisfied that no-one would find it, Jack set the timer to fifteen minutes and began to make his escape, pausing to let his cloak recharge before setting the timer. Jack turned to leave, but saw a Spartan with HAZOP armour come out of the door, followed by a group of ODSTs.

_ONI really went all out on this one; they did put a Spartan in the kill squad. _Thought Jack

"Spread out, get everyone out of here. We need to find that interloper and eliminate him. Testing is due in less than 24 hours and we can't afford any more setbacks." ordered the Spartan

The ODSTs hastened to obey, getting the remaining personnel out of the cavern and into the radiation shielded control area. The Spartan walked throughout the crates and machinery, making sure there were no more stragglers when suddenly stopped, stood still and turned his head towards Jack.

Jack froze, aware that the Spartan shouldn't be able to see him, but nonetheless anxious.

One of the ODSTs walked up to the Spartan and tapped him on the shoulder

"Uh, sir, we got all personnel out, though several are unaccounted for, a crane operator whose shift ended five minutes ago-" The ODST stopped when he realised the Spartan was looking intently at the top platform of the weapon

"Sir? Is something wrong?"

"I got a radar jammer somewhere here, just a faint trace, but the interloper might be using it to mask his trail." said the Spartan in a lowered voice "Fan out and set up for a triangulation."

The ODST nodded and told the others to do as instructed.

Jack could see them fan out around his position, and concluded that they would soon find him. He had to get out of there before that. He went to the edge of the weapon and lay flat on the floor, pulling his crossbow off his back and aiming at the nearest marine, his neck in clear view. Jack pulled the trigger, and the mechanism triggered, sending the bolt through the marine's spine and into the device he was setting up, shattering the readout screen. Another marine heard the glass shatter and went to investigate. Jack used the opportunity to sneak away in the opposite direction. As he approached the ladder leading back down, the Spartan came up, right in front of Jack. Both of them froze, staring into each other's face for a few seconds, until Jack's cloak faded away.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

The Spartan jerked his head back in surprise and made to punch Jack's face. Jack easily avoided the attack and darted back, looking for another way off the platform. The Spartan leapt up and pulled his assault rifle off his back and fired after Jack, who was hiding behind a generator. Bullets pounded the metal around Jack, ricocheting off and careening in every direction. The Spartan stopped firing and snuck forward to investigate. Jack took a deep breath and flicked on his energy blades. Leaping over from cover, the Spartan was right on top of him, and Jack had no time to react before the Spartan pushed him back with his rifle.

Jack slid across the platform, very close to the edge. Jack ran forward, straight at the Spartan, intent on bringing him down. The Spartan raised his rifle and fired, but Jack deflected the bullets with his blades, painfully. The Spartan was about to reload but Jack was already on him, slashing through his rifle and knocking away his secondary pistol, which fell over the edge.

The two wrestled until Jack spat on the visor of the Spartan, who shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Using this moment of distraction, Jack made to stab the Spartan in the chest, only to be thwarted by an ODST firing his battle rifle at the two, causing Jack to retract his hand out of concern for it being shot off.

The Spartan kicked Jack up and over his head, sending him flying into an ODST by accident. The ODST got up but Jack had already stolen his rifle and kicked him over the edge, firing at the other four with pinpoint accuracy. The Spartan threw a piece of his ruined assault rifle at Jack and hit him square in the back of his head, dazing him. As Jack turned slowly around, the Spartan had launched a flying kick designed to send him over the edge in much the same way the marine did, but Jack regained his senses and fell flat on the ground just in time. The Spartan fell over the edge but caught the edge of neighbouring platform and hauled himself up.

"Come in control, this is Spartan Cole-009. Start up the firing sequence now, we got a hostile in here that needs frying. Worry about the target later, just do it." said Cole over his radio

A second or two passed when the machine underneath Jack began to rumble like a beast awakening from its slumber. The Spartan watched as Jack nearly lost his footing on the unstable surface, and then made a running leap onto Jack's platform, rolling with the landing, coming up in a defensive stance

"I don't know who you are, but I know you're here to cause some trouble, and that's what I'm here to prevent. So you'll have to die. But you did just kill my squad, so fair's fair."

Jack took up his own defensive stance, his energy blades sizzling in the increasingly charged air.

"I reckon you have about five minutes until you die from overexposure to radiation and you brown like a baked potato." Said Cole-009

"Then I'll just have to beat you in four." Responded Jack

The two rushed at each other, exchanging a series of furious blows; Jack mostly dodging and Cole being careful about where he put his blows, as Jack could easily take off an appendage with the energy blades.

Jack tried everything he knew to keep himself from being overwhelmed by the Spartan's superior strength; dodging and making use of his smaller size and faster movement speed. After a near-deadly exchange, the table finally shifted, Jack nicked the Spartan's armour, his shields flickering and sputtering where the blade pierced it, until it boiled away at the titanium-A alloy that made up a Spartan's armour and revealed the pale skin beneath. Jack pressed his advantage, pushing the Spartan closer to the edge where the large emitter dish stuck out from the weapon, pointed at an angle at the ceiling. Jack brought his hand back for a thrust but Cole sidestepped it and roundhouse kicked Jack in the back, sending him over and breaking a rib. Jack tumbled down, tried to right himself and caught hold of a handhold in the dish.

Cole-009 looked over Jack, dangling helplessly as the dish warmed up to full power

"This is Spartan Cole-009 to control, fire when ready." Said Cole over the radio

The dish angled up a little more, now on a 45 degree angle towards the ceiling. Jack could feel the dish warm up and become very hot as the radiation built up around him. He began to feel very hot, and he knew that even if he got out of this mess, he would probably die of radiation poisoning. Cole stood back a bit from the edge and looked up at the ceiling.

"Hey, maybe if you're lucky, the ray will hit your evac transport, and no-one will miss you. Hahaha!" Cole laughed at Jack's inevitable demise when the suddenly Jack heard the sound of more gunfire, but it was too rapid for a rifle. Then he heard another noise, like the of a jetpack

"Woohoo! It's rainin' hellfire!" came Hank's voice from high above. Cole saw Hank flying through the air with his brute thruster pack and machine gun turret firing at him. Cole ducked behind a generator and Hank landed, laying down suppressing fire, while Julia came at Cole from behind.

Julia slashed, stabbed and swung at Cole, striking here, there and everywhere, scoring hits all over his armour and cutting it to shreds. Cole tried to knee her in the head when she went for a low strike but it was a feint on her part, and she thrust up into his jaw, killing him instantly. As his body fell to the ground, Julia went over to the edge and looked for a way to get Jack back up.

"Julia? Is that you?" asked Jack, the heat so much it was getting harder to keep his eyes open, it felt like they were on fire.

"Yes, it's me. We came to rescue you. When your biomonitor started giving radiation poisoning readings and we figured something went wrong, so we came back for you." She replied, actually sounding concerned

"Just get me off this dish, I think I'm dying here!."

"Monroe, can you shut this thing down?" asked Julia to Jill, who was at a console attached to a generator

"Already on it, disconnecting main power supply, now!"

The heat on Jack finally subsided, but he still felt like he was being slowly cooked from the inside out and his muscles were burning from hanging there so long. Julia swung a chain from one of the cranes over and Jack slowly grabbed hold of it. Hank pulled him up onto the platform.

"I guess I owe you one." Said Jack wearily, leaning on Hank's huge frame for support

"Yeah, you do, and now we're equal; we've both killed a Spartan." Said Julia

Jack smiled, and then passed out, the last thing he saw was Jill running towards him, screaming "_No, no!"_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Jack had intermittent flashes of what happened over the next few weeks:

_A huge explosion felt through the arms of whoever was carrying him_

_Moving down a corridor on a stretcher, or maybe being carried_

_The inside of a ship's sick bay_

_A light being shone in his eyes_

After that, the sensations began to be further apart

_The feeling of being suspended in liquid that felt like water but had the consistency of jelly_

_His uncle saying to him, "_Jack, if you can hear me, we have a way to heal you, but it will be very unorthodox. I can't guarantee its success but it's the best shot we have. Just nod or shake."

Jack nodded, and then slipped back into unconsciousness.

_Looking down, and seeing a white sheet covering his body _

_Being poked at and prodded by machines and people, all very fuzzy and faint_

_Intense pain in his spine that woke him up with a shock_

_A feeling of cold mercury flooding his consciousness_

_His Uncle Jacob, Zhang, Hank and Jill standing over him, with concerned looks on their faces, his fingers twitching against his will_

_A voice with a heavy Italian accent commenting on the state of his mind_

_The feeling of his skin becoming covered in a layer of fluid, encased in a skin-tight suit, with weights on it_

_A dark box going over his head, cutting off all light_

When Jack finally woke, his muscles felt weak, like he had been in bed for months. But the rest of him felt like it was brand new, strong and firm bones, a sharp and clear mind, but nothing in it, like a blank slate. Jack tried to speak but all he could manage was a groan. The lights were out, or was his head still in the box? Either way, he couldn't see anything. He tried removing the box, only to find it was more of a dome-shape, and that he had lost most of the sense of touch in his fingers.

All of a sudden, the Italian voice could be heard echoing about the room

"Ah, good, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

Jack shook his head slowly

"Confused, aren't you." it wasn't a question "It will take some time for you to acclimatise with the armour's systems. I'm here to help you through the process. Try sitting up."

Jack arched his back forward in an attempt to sit up as instructed, he wasn't sure why he trusted this man, but something in his voice sounded familiar, and it sounded like it could be trusted. Slowly, he sat up, his body feeling a hundred times heavier than before.

"Alright, your muscles are still able to respond to your brain. So that's alright." With the heavy accent, the voice rolled the 'r' and stretched the 'i.'

"Where, where am I?" stuttered Jack

"You are inside Mount Kallos, you are safe. It's the middle of the night, we weren't expecting you to wake up now."

"Mount Kallos, but how?"

"Gamma team pulled you out. They brought you back here and kept you alive from the radiation poisoning. You were lucky that we had just finished developing this technology successfully enough to implement it; it's treating the poisoning as we speak."

"Who, who are you?"

"Ah, I was told you would be full of questions. I am an AI, Ezio."

Jack suddenly realised why the voice sounded so familiar, it was the voice of his ancestor, one of the greatest Assassins who ever lived; Ezio Auditore.

"But you lived thousands of years ago, how did we get a scan of your brain?"

"You already had it, in the animus. Enough small talk, we should get the others here now, they'll want to see how you're doing."

"How am I doing? What am I wearing anyway?"

Ezio didn't respond for a moment

"Ezio, what am I wearing?" persisted Jack

"You are wearing the newest iteration of Spartan armour, specially developed for Assassins, by Assassins and modified to keep you alive through the treatment. We call it, the Ascendance project. You are not an average Spartan, with your training and the augments we installed, you are even better, you are an Archon."

Jack let the news sink in. A Spartan? How? They managed to reverse-engineer the whole armour already, even the implantation process? Jack couldn't believe it, but while he'd been listening to Ezio, his body started growing stronger, like it was rebooting. He could move properly again, and a display came up on the darkness in front of his face, a heads-up display showing his vitals stabilising. He looked up and down himself, but he couldn't see anything in the pitch black darkness of the unlit room. Suddenly, the display glowed green and he could see his outline clearly, he was indeed wearing what appeared to be mark VI Spartan armour, but it appeared to be more streamlined, more contoured.

He looked up again and saw Ezio appear on the holographic display, as he was in the later years of his life, in full Assassin robes, much like the ceremonial ones modern Assassins wore.

"The others are on their way, your uncle and girlfriend are coming too."

"She's not my girlfriend,:" Jack tried to say, but he fumbled over the words and said something incomprehensible. Before he could correct himself, people in white lab coats entered the room, switching on lights and bringing equipment online. Jack's night vision automatically turned itself off at the higher light intensity.

"Subject is at normal body temperature, his vitals are stable and his cognitive functions are in order." Said a doctor at a monitor

"We're showing green across the board here, armour diagnostics report a full acceptance by subject."

"Hey, guys, I'm right here and I can hear you." said Jack to the assembled people, who stopped and looked at him in amazement

"Amazing, he's already accustomed to the armour's systems. How do you feel Mr. Jiles?" asked a doctor

"Better now, what's the status of the radiation poisoning?"

The doctor looked at a screen on the wall and back to Jack

"We've identified the mutation pattern in your cells and we've created a hormone that will instruct your cells to conform to your original DNA pattern, but it is a slow and complicated process, I won't bore you with the details. Your body must be constantly transmitted the artificial hormones for it to work, otherwise your body might begin to reject them. We've had to modify your cell cycle too, as the radiation gave you some kind of cancer. You have to stay in that armour for a while."

"How long is a while?"

"We're not sure, we'll give you check-ups regularly to find out when you can take it off, but until then, only your helmet and nothing else; your hood had radiation shielding woven into the fabric which protected you from the brunt of it, which is how you're still alive. The armour is self-sustaining, so you won't have to worry about bodily functions or starving to death. Also we have Ezio ready to go so you will have someone monitoring your body, as well as a dumb AI to run the nanobot repair systems we extrapolated from our last remaining Huragok, Heavier Than Most."

"What else does this armour have? It sounds like something that the Forerunners would have invented."

The doctor nodded, "The Archon mark II armour contains all the basic functions of a Spartan III, with several modifications. Yours has the hormone dosage regulator, suspended in a biofoam injector similar to what the mark-V Mjiolnir armour had, as well as our own special composite material heavy armour for your vital areas, and high-impact resistant body underglove. Other functional additions include, two energy blades, one in either wrist gauntlet, as well as the particle beam weapons that your friend Ho was able to field-test, sound muffling joints, nanobot repair system, smart link to your weapons, slot for AI, real time HUD display, multi-coloured visor tinting with default black, holographic overlay for blending in with other soldiers and environments, and finally, although this is more a style addition, we have been getting complaints about headshots, so we put in a bullet hood: a retractable hood that covers most of your helmet and shields it from stray or intentional fire."

"Does it have extranet?" asked Jack sarcastically

"Actually, yes it does. Ezio will run you through your armour's systems when he has time."

By this time, Jill and governor Jiles had entered the room.

"Jack! Oh I'm so glad you made it. We were all afraid you were gone. I would never forgive myself for letting both my brothers and my nephew go under my watch. Jill here wouldn't be quiet about your recovery." Said Jiles

Jill ignored the comment and went up to Jack, shoving her way past the small crowd of doctors.

"Jack? Is that really you in there?" she asked

"Hey, Ezio, how do I tint my visor to make it clear?" Jack was about to ask when the visor did just that.

Jill visibly lightened up when she saw he was alright and gave him a hug around his head, then just as quickly released him

"You've been out cold for weeks, we though you weren't going to make it."

"Speaking of which, you will need to see this." Said Jiles, handing him yet another sheaf of papers.

"You really do like to do things the old fashion way, don't you uncle."

"Nothing wrong with a good piece of paper and a pen is there?"

Jack read through the papers at a speed that surprised him. When he got to the end, he put it down and spoke without looking at anyone.

"You can't be serious." He said quietly

"No, I am. And the only logical answer is that-"

"I read it. I just don't believe it."

"What? What is it?" asked Jill

"My uncle is still alive."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"So, what have you found Jiles?" asked the Templar grandmaster, Henrietta Balenka

Alistair rubbed his face, lingering on his scar, a habit he'd developed long ago

"Not much, the Assassins have gone quiet. After that attack on Misriah I haven't been able to intercept any more transmission." Replied Alistair

"Well, at least you're earning your keep here. The training is good, but we all have to pull our own weight here. You're the only person who understands the way your brother's mind works."

Alistair grimaced

"I know, but I didn't want to have to be directly against the Assassins if at all possible. I agreed to train your soldiers how to survive against an Assassin and how to fight them better, and you forced me to intercept their transmissions and decode them for you, but I really don't want to be a part of this vendetta we have going here. Now that the Covenant has finally ceased its relentless attempt to kill us all, I think we should be directing our efforts to making sure it doesn't happen again."

Balenka smiled

"Don't worry, our agents inside ONI have made sure that the remains of the Covenant will be so busy they won't even have time to think about attacking us."

"So, this is what happened after you passed out:" began Hank, "We carried you out, as fast as we could. Had to set off the charges around the facility to distract the guards. When we finally got to the safe zone and the tac-nuke detonated, dropships came bearing down on us! I was able to take out one, and Zhang shot two of the pilots and we hijacked the fourth and rode it back to _Jackdaw. _The medical team was able to keep you stable while we made our daring escape through slipspace. Nearly crashed into the mountain we were going so fast. We rushed you to intensive care and they began work immediately, putting you in some kind of electrostatic gel or something, I don't know, but it seemed to do the trick. After that, apparently you said yes to the 'alternative treatment' bullshit they were on about. Alternative treatment? How is turning you into a supersoldier alternative treatment? I don't know Jack, but it worked. The doctors say you can perform better than normal within the suit and you should be back to normal within three months."

"That's a long time to spend in a metal suit." Remarked Jack

Hank nodded sympathetically

"I don't know what your uncle was thinking, but I heard that he's taken too much from losing so many family members. I can understand that, but you getting all this special treatment isn't good for anyone else."

"Right, but there's not much I can do about that. Uncle Jacob is just trying to take care of me as well as everyone else in this mountain."

"Whatever you say Jack."

Hank stood up and dusted himself off. He walked over to the weapon rack and picked up a heavy machine gun turret and mounted it on the barricade, aiming down the lane at the targets 100 metres away. He opened fire, tearing into the target with ferocious efficiency. After a few seconds of continuous fire, he lifted it off the barricade and indicated for Jack to have a go.

Jack nodded and stood up a little too quickly, almost losing his balance. The Archon armour was not only enhancing his natural abilities immensely, but its weight was throwing him off. He would need to rectify that soon.

He walked up to the barricade and held up his arms sideways. Two small purple reticules appeared on his visor, shifting slightly as he adjusted his arms. He gave a quick mental command and the energy gauntlets fired a small particle beam that sliced through the bullseye and scarred the wall behind it. Jack loosed his muscles and put his hands by his sides, waiting for the automatic system to kick in.

A target popped out of the ceiling 50 metres away, Jack's heightened reflexes and Ezio's calibrations made his aim spot on; piercing each and every bullseye that came into view milliseconds after they became visible. After the last one was down, he went back and sat next to Zhang, who was watching with disdain

"Show off. Just because you have an automated targeting system doesn't mean you have to go flaunting it every opportunity you get." Said Zhang

"Maybe so, but I have to get used to it all the same. If I'm going to wear this armour and have the right to be called an Archon, the Spartan warrior Assassin, I have to be every bit as good as any of them." He replied

"Yeah, but without that helmet you're only as good as you were before you had that armour." Rebutted Zhang

"And that's why Gamma still needs you, buddy." said Hank, clapping Zhang on the back. Zhang cheered up a little bit after that, and after another half hour's training they all retired to the mess hall. On the way there, Jack suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, Hank. Did you ever follow up on that lead at JOTUN? That guy the captain mentioned to you? What was his name?"

"Barry Marlow. Yeah, I found him and asked him what the shipment was for. He gave me some information he had stowed away for that captain who picked us up. The data was encrypted but I sent it to our guys anyway. They found out that ONI is manufacturing weapons to sell to the Sangheili to keep them fighting between themselves. The kicker is that the weapons have radioactive tracers built into them so that ONI can track where they go. I don't know why they'd want to do that though."

Jill was waiting for them when they arrived at the mess hall. She walked up to Jack, Ezio silently displayed a face-analysing software that told Jack exactly what her face was telling of her feelings: she was calm, yet troubled, as if about to release a great burden that she wasn't sure she should. Jack shook the thought out of his head and quietly told Ezio to keep out of this. He pulled off his helmet and shook out his hair, badly messed up the confines of the Pilot-variant helmet.

"Jack I- I know that this is hard for me, and that you might be enjoying all this attention, but it's been a week now since you came back to us. I know you've been busy with your training and- hey guys, could you give us a moment alone here?" she glared at Hank and Zhang, who were both grinning like idiots at the conversation. They sobered up and slunk away, talking excitedly in hushed tones.

"And I know that I still want to be friends, what I'm trying to say is, I was looking forward to us on a date, and now that you've gone and put that armour on, it's like you're a whole different person."

Jill paused, as if to allow Jack to interject, but he remained silent so Jill continued

"Look, I'm no idiot, and I know you're not; we both knew what was happening between us, and honestly it was happening all a bit too fast."

_Although it was you who asked me out, sort of…_ thought Jack to himself

"So although I really don't like the fact you have to wear this suit just to make sure you stay healthy, I suppose it gives us the chance to take things slowly from now. Right?"

"Jill, I completely understand what you mean. I like you, and if this suit is going to get in the way of anything between us, then I'm really sorry, but I think whatever it is will have to be postponed until then."

Jill looked relieved

"Oh good, I was afraid you would take it the wrong way. Alright then, want to get some lunch?"

"Oh yes, I'm starving."

Over the course of the next week, Jack's days fell into a routine: get up, train, eat breakfast, spar, study, train, eat lunch, train, calibrate armour, eat dinner and then do whatever took his fancy. Jack was getting fed up with being stuck in a mountain with people who stared at him every time he walked by, and some even attacked him, believing him to be a Spartan who somehow made it within the mountain but were always deterred by either Jack or their peers. He hungered for some real action and at the end of the first week, he got it: a mission to take out a local Kig-yar pirate band on Venezia. They had been attacking New Tyne and intercepting the Assassin's chain of supply and needed to be stopped. Jack was going in as primary with the rest of Gamma backing him up.

"These are no small-time pirates, they have taken over the T-38 cannon outside of New Tyne and according to our reports they have a lot of members at their disposal, however they are probably undisciplined and will go down easily. If at all possible, try not to damage the T-38, it's our best AA defence." Ezio told Gamma as they rode in on a troop transport Warthog to the T-38 Covenant anti-aircraft emplacement

"Roger that Ezio. We should be fine." Said Jack

"Yeah, he's got us to back him up if things go screwy." Said Zhang

"Good, 'cause if we sent you in it'd be the other way around." Said Hank

Julia said nothing but gunned the Warthog a little more, jerking everyone forward a little.


End file.
